RoR: Forum

Mme. Branden-

Thank you! I myself don't smoke tobacco except on professional occasions, which translates to two or three cigarettes a month, plus one every few months to worship a whim. In the frame of mind of looking at tobacco from a perspective as personal art or unusual experience, I haven't felt any cravings whatsoever.

And your words actually speak a great deal a personal situation. While smoking isn't an issue for me, I've been struggling for months with similar eating issues; I'm used to being a nerdish Bohemian with a conflagration of a metabolism; becoming a woman with a much slower metabolism and vocational requirements increasingly approaching those of a model has just been horrific, especially as sugar has been for a long time my personal way to get through stress. I haven't read the book in question, and I doubt I'll need to, but the premises implied are precisely my own; reading your words makes me look up and go 'Duh!', and I am losing weight with far less torture now than any other time. So, personally thank you.

On the theoretical issues, I certainly think physical addiction is a rational and actual existent, but I not only have a Szaszian objection to the concept of physical addiction, but reading Michel Foucault made me very sensitive to the degree to which narratives of inherent and essential mechanisms and natures can create the evidence for innate psychological pressures and drives. I don't doubt at all any of your words; in fact, they same priority of volition over emotion is an essential part of an escort's practice. I am very, very grateful for you writing what you have here; it may have saved me from an immense amount of pointless inner struggle.

Though forgive me if a Pagan is striking her head going "d'oh!"

, and she should really know better.

my regards,

Jeanine Ring ))(*)((

Post 21

Saturday, November 13, 2004 - 7:21pm

Jeanine, I'm delighted that my article on smoking has made it easier for you to lose weight. Carr's book made it easier for me to diet (which I've been doing off and on since about the age of two). I taught myself to look at feelings of hunger and cravings for sweets as simply interesting physical sensations which were not painful or distressing and which told me I was losing weight. That is, I learned to do this most of the time.

I understand that Carr has a book on dieting, but that he advocates vegetarianism.

Barbara

Post 22

Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 4:14pm

Barbara wrote:

I understand that Carr has a book on dieting, but that he advocates vegetarianism.

Not wanting to stir up the rabid flesh-eaters here, but why the use of the word �but�? I just don�t happen to know many gravitationally challenged veggies.

As an interesting � albeit irrelevant aside, it is said that Pythagoras was a vegetarian and apparently vegetarians were called Pythagoreans up until the 1800's.

Julian

Post 23

Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 8:04pm

SOLO-UK: Take care of this apostate, would you? I might have been inclined to leniency given how long it took him to give up God, but this filthy alfalfa-ism has gone on way too long. Shoot him.

Linz

Post 24

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 2:49am

Julian: "Not wanting to stir up the rabid flesh-eaters here, but why the use of the word �but�?"

I meant only that it's not for me.

Barbara

Post 25

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 2:51am

Hmmm. . . Once again, Lindsay and I don't seem to agree on our approaches.

Barbara

Post 26

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 11:47am

Er ... I think Linz might have been joking. Just a suspicion I have.

Linz

[Groan]

Post 27

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:39pm

Linz, I knew that! Or you would have recommended slow torture, not a merciful shooting.

Barbara

Post 28

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:49pm

Oh well then, my mistake. Thank goodness.

Julian's diet is slow torture enough. As I remember, the boy was always hungry. Sometimes he would visit me with one of his alfalafa sprout & lentil concoctions. He would eat it, & be palpably unsated. Any chocolate I might have had in the house would disappear down his gullet faster than you could say "self-mortification." One day he was so hungry he ate my newspaper. Then he started chomping on the furniture. Feverishly. That's the problem with these vegans - you can't take them anywhere.

Linz

Post 29

Monday, November 15, 2004 - 1:07pm

Msr. Perigo-

If I confess that I like granola, eat very little meat by American standards, and enjoyed a vegetarian meal with a friend the night before last... am I still welcome here, or is this shame, alas, too great?

*concerned*,

Jeanine Ring ))(*)((

Post 30

Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 1:01pm

> One day he was so hungry he ate my newspaper. Then he
> started chomping on the furniture. Feverishly.

I wonder if he's related to my puppy?

Post 31

Sunday, April 17, 2005 - 5:50am

Hi Barbara,

That was a very inspiring article. Michael told me about it so I dug it up.

I had quit smoking before my kids were born but picked up the habit again a few years ago. I was living with a smoker. He would not quit so I started. Yeah, I know it was a stupid thing to do. He has major health problems related to heart failure and has defiantly refused to quit. He called it his cosmic game of chicken. Go figure.

Well as you know, I am making some major changes in my life right now... clearing the path to a long and happy life with the man I love. I have been an objectivist for only a few years, having discovered Ayn Rand when I went back to school to finish my degree. While I was in school I met two people who I felt a deep bond with. One became my best friend and the other began dating her. It did not work between them and he and I eventually got together and were together for nearly five years. It destroyed the best friendship I have ever known. I was torn between two people I loved dearly and these two people could not co-exist in the same universe. She kept pushing a choice from me and because she did that, I always chose him and she would disappear for a few months before the cycle repeated itself.

Recently, I gave him the boot. I was tired of living a contradiction. I knew for a long time it was wrong. I finally woke up, checked my premises and broke up with him. It was very difficult. I found out the other day that my friend died a few months ago. This was very soon after our last failed attempt at friendship. I cried but did not light up.

I quit smoking last week. For me, my family, my future and my love. For good.

Post 32

Monday, August 8, 2005 - 8:56pm

Now this is an article by Barbara that deserves attention from smokers who missed it the first time.

In 1965 I spent 13 nights with President Eisenhower after he had a heart attack while I was undergoing medical training at Ft. Gordon, GA. I was struck by the fact that a lifetime of smoking had apparently contributed to his heart disease and probably was going to significantly shorten his life.Three and a half years later he died on my 25th birthday and that's when I quit smoking. I had a constant cough and was afraid for my health decades hence. I was actually allergic to cigarette smoke.

I would have quit sooner, but I was on my way to Vietnam and wasn't going to give up the pleasure since I had a good chance of getting killed. That's the same reason I went to that whorehouse in Nha Trang when I arrived in country.

I just stopped. I substituted little cigars the size of cigarettes and just puffed on them from time to time for a couple of months doing a Bill Clinton (for real) then stopped those too.

--Brant

Post 33

Monday, August 8, 2005 - 10:01pm

Uh...you do know that Barbara still smokes, at least she was puffing down at Soloc4. She did try to hide it at first, maybe because of this article.

JJ

Post 34

Monday, August 8, 2005 - 10:05pm

Is this true?

Monday, August 8, 2005 - 11:38pm

It is true that she was smoking at SOLOC4.

Post 36

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - 12:41am

I don't know what to think anymore. Barbara promotes a book about how to quit smoking and denies the physical addiction. Barbara writes a post advocating James' position that Linz is an alcoholic. Then I hear this. I don't know if I'm making too much out of the connection, but it just seems...weird. (I don't care that she smokes, or may have a problem quitting...but to actively promote a book like that, then to be seen smoking...is this a ploy to destroy her credibility, or something more, or something else...).

This is too much.

Post 37

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - 12:58am

Maybe Barbara just decided she wanted to smoke again? That it was worth it? Why not give her the benefit of the doubt?

Despite some recent disappointment with the manner in which she left SoloHQ, I for one am still willing to find immense value in this wonderful woman, and don't see why a few disagreements should lead to a sudden hunger to hunt down flaws and mercilessly assassinate her character when the opportunity arises.

Why can't we still focus on celebrating her for the good and great in her? Must we stoop to the level of ARI and Valliant, pontifying and doubting, destroying and whacking our heroes, in a horribly parallel manner to which the creator of this site has been slighted?

I'd really rather not. Unless Barbara has something to say about it, or somebody knows her real opinion on the matter, I think it is reasonable to just assume that she smokes because she wants to. Or that she was beaten by her addiction to tobacco afterall, and possibly feels stupid about what she wrote now, regrets it even. To assume it is some sort of deliberate deceipt or enormous character flaw just smacks of nastiness to me.

Post 38

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - 1:36am

I really don't care that she smokes, or even if she needed help. It's not that big a deal in itself, even. But when you post an endorsement like that with the intent of demonstrating commitment to the idea that one has the power to control all aspects of one's life if one is merely rational...then go and accuse someone of being an alcoholic. Ya know?

For the record, I like Barbara and supported her here. I like Linz and support him at his best. But right now I feel a fool for assuming Linz was an alcoholic because people I respect said so. I should have minded my own business. I don't know either personally, so whatever's going on, I can't say.

I really hate these games.

Post 39

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - 3:00am